Representative Trey Gowdy, the committee chairman, ended the marathon Benghazi committee hearing by peppering Hillary Rodham Clinton with a barrage of questions about the emails that she had turned over.

His forehead soaked in sweat, Mr. Gowdy demanded that Mrs. Clinton explain how she came up with the figure that 90 to 95 percent of her emails were already in the possession of the State Department and questioned why she gave different answers to different people about her private email server.

Mr. Gowdy then probed Mrs. Clinton about how she could know if she had really turned everything over, if more private emails had emerged since she first made that proclamation.

“Was it a mistake for the four years that you had that email arrangement?” Mr. Gowdy asked. “Was it a mistake for four years that you kept the public record to yourself, or has it manifest itself as a mistake in the last six months?”

Mr. Gowdy and Mrs. Clinton did have a brief light moment when he joked about the high price of her lawyers.

“I’m well aware of that mister chairman, and the clock is ticking,” Mrs. Clinton said.

Mr. Gowdy offered to pay Mrs. Clinton if he could ask her one more question. Moments later he thanked her for her patience and let her go.

“With that, we will be adjourned,” he said.

—
Alan Rappeport

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Continued

https://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/10/22/multimedia/hrc-benghazi-hearing/hrc-benghazi-hearing-facebookJumbo.jpg2015-10-22T22:37:29.029+00:00Watch the Benghazi Hearing in 3 MinutesWatch highlights from the House hearing about an attack in Benghazi, Libya, in 2012, when Hillary Rodham Clinton was secretary of state. The hearing began at 10 a.m. and, with breaks, lasted until 9 p.m.CreditBy PAUL VOLPE, QUYNHANH DO and MICHAEL LESTERhttps://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/10/22/multimedia/hrc-benghazi-hearing/hrc-benghazi-hearing-facebookJumbo.jpg

After about 11 hours, the long-awaited Benghazi committee hearing featuring Hillary Rodham Clinton came to an end.

While there were some light moments about the former secretary of state’s sleeping habits and legal fees, much of the day was dedicated to examining the circumstances surrounding the attacks on the American compound in Libya, her email practices and, of course, the real intentions of the investigation.

Representative Trey Gowdy, the committee chairman, ended the marathon Benghazi committee hearing by peppering Hillary Rodham Clinton with a barrage of questions about the emails that she had turned over.

His forehead soaked in sweat, Mr. Gowdy demanded that Mrs. Clinton explain how she came up with the figure that 90 to 95 percent of her emails were already in the possession of the State Department and questioned why she gave different answers to different people about her private email server.

Mr. Gowdy then probed Mrs. Clinton about how she could know if she had really turned everything over, if more private emails had emerged since she first made that proclamation.

“Was it a mistake for the four years that you had that email arrangement?” Mr. Gowdy asked. “Was it a mistake for four years that you kept the public record to yourself, or has it manifest itself as a mistake in the last six months?”

Mr. Gowdy and Mrs. Clinton did have a brief light moment when he joked about the high price of her lawyers.

“I’m well aware of that mister chairman, and the clock is ticking,” Mrs. Clinton said.

Mr. Gowdy offered to pay Mrs. Clinton if he could ask her one more question. Moments later he thanked her for her patience and let her go.

Representative Trey Gowdy to a Democratic colleague who was asking him how much longer the hearing would go on.

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https://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/10/22/multimedia/hrc-benghazi-hearing-9/hrc-benghazi-hearing-9-facebookJumbo.jpg2015-10-22T21:18:47.047+00:00Cummings Comes to Clinton’s DefenseRepresentative Elijah E. Cummings, Democrat of Maryland, apologized to Hillary Rodham Clinton for his colleagues who suggested she did not care about people who died on her watch.CreditBy THE ASSOCIATED PRESShttps://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/10/22/multimedia/hrc-benghazi-hearing-9/hrc-benghazi-hearing-9-facebookJumbo.jpg

Representative Elijah E. Cummings, the ranking Democrat on the Benghazi committee, offered a full-throated defense of Hillary Rodham Clinton’s honor, apologizing to her for his colleagues who suggested that she did not care for the people who died on her watch.

“I don’t know what we want from you,” Mr. Cummings said, accusing Republicans of using taxpayer dollars to try to destroy Mrs. Clinton’s presidential campaign. “Do we want to badger you over and over again until you do get so tired so we get the gotcha moment?”

Clearly touched by his words, Mrs. Clinton thanked Mr. Cummings and said that she had done all that she could to answer more than ten hours of questions. She then expressed hope that, somehow, statesmanship could overcome partisanship.

“It is deeply unfortunate that something as serious as what happened in Benghazi could ever be used for partisan political purposes,” she said. “I’m hoping that we can move forward together.”

—
Alan Rappeport

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“If we stay here much longer, you’re going to have to take that 3 a.m. phone call from the committee room.”

Nearly ten hours into the Benghazi hearing, Republicans turned to the most controversial topic that Hillary Rodham Clinton has faced in recent months: her exclusive use of a private email account while secretary of state.

Representative Jim Jordan, a Republican from Ohio, fired questions to Mrs. Clinton in rapid succession, demanding to know the details of why she used a private account and server and how she went about figuring out which ones were private and which were public when she turned them over.

“So you don’t know?” Mr. Jordan said of the search terms her team used to comb the emails. “What search terms did you use? Why did you mention the secret service agent?”

Mrs. Clinton reiterated that it was a mistake to use a single account and but that she did nothing wrong.

Mr. Jordan pressed her to promise that she would allow an independent judge to examine any deleted emails that might be retrieved from her server.

The former secretary of state demurred.

“I have been releasing my emails to the public, that is transparency,” she said. “So far as I know, I am the only government official who has ever done that.”

—
Alan Rappeport

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“It seems to me that really what the majority is doing is that they simply wish to wear you down and hopefully get you to say something that they can later use.”

For Mrs. Clinton, it was the only moment of the day in which she could not seem to contain herself.

“I’m sorry,” she said, going on to explain that she worked through the night that evening and did not sleep. “A little note of levity at 7:15.”

—
Alan Rappeport

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“I also want to begin by apologizing for my Republican colleagues who apparently want to write your answers for you, or testify for you because I think it fits into their outlandish narrative of what happened.”

https://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/10/22/multimedia/hrc-benghazi-hearing-8/hrc-benghazi-hearing-8-facebookJumbo.jpg2015-10-22T19:17:38.038+00:00A Shredded RequestRepresentative Peter Roskam, Republican of Illinois, tore a piece of paper to illustrate how Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens’s request for more security in Libya was treated by the State Department.CreditBy THE ASSOCIATED PRESShttps://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/10/22/multimedia/hrc-benghazi-hearing-8/hrc-benghazi-hearing-8-facebookJumbo.jpg

Representative Peter Roskam, Republican of Illinois, came close on Thursday to placing the blame on Hillary Rodham Clinton for the deaths of four Americans in Benghazi.

“You had two ambassadors who made repeated requests and here’s what happened to their requests,” he said, ripping apart a piece of paper in front of Mrs. Clinton. “They were torn up.”

Mr. Roskam accused Mrs. Clinton of passing the buck to security experts and low-level staffers and said that she created a culture at the State Department where important information never made its way to the top.

Mr. Roskam then recalled Mrs. Clinton’s congressional testimony from 2013 when she praised the bravery of Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and then went on to say what he thought she should have said to honor him.

“You should have added this: ‘Chris Stevens kept faith with the State Department that I headed even though it broke faith with him. He accepted my invitation to serve in Benghazi, even though he was denied the security that he implored us to give him. I and my colleagues were distracted by other matters and opportunities and ambitions and we breached our fundamental duty to mitigate his danger and ensure his safety.’ ”

Mrs. Clinton rejected that suggestion, saying, “I think it is a disservice for you to make that statement.”

How interested are Republicans on the Benghazi committee in Sidney Blumenthal? According to Representative Adam Schiff, the Democrat from California, they are obsessed.

Republicans have so far declined to release the deposition of Mr. Blumenthal, a longtime friend and sometimes adviser to Hillary Rodham Clinton, but Mr. Schiff offered a “Sidney Blumenthal by the numbers” during the hearing to convey exactly what kinds of questions his colleagues were asking him.

According to Mr. Schiff, Republicans on the committee asked Mr. Blumenthal 160 questions about his relationship with the Clintons, fewer than 20 questions about the Benghazi attacks, more than 50 questions about the Clinton Foundation, four questions about security in Benghazi, 270 questions about his business dealings in Libya and no questions about the United States presence in Benghazi.

“I just don’t understand the pre-occupation with Sidney Blumenthal,” Mr. Schiff said. “You would think he was in Benghazi that night manning the barricades.”

https://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/10/22/multimedia/hrc-benghazi-hearing-7/hrc-benghazi-hearing-7-facebookJumbo.jpg2015-10-22T18:03:38.038+00:00What Would Clinton Have Done Differently?Representative Lynn Westmoreland, Republican of Georgia, asked Hillary Rodham Clinton what she would have done differently during the attack in Benghazi, Libya, in 2012.CreditBy THE ASSOCIATED PRESShttps://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/10/22/multimedia/hrc-benghazi-hearing-7/hrc-benghazi-hearing-7-facebookJumbo.jpg

Republican committee members spent much of Thursday’s hearing asking questions suggesting Hillary Rodham Clinton made mistakes leading up to the Benghazi attacks.

In the final hours of questioning, Representative Lynn Westmoreland, Republican of Georgia, put it to her more directly.

“You said you wondered what things you could have done differently,” Mr. Westmoreland said. “What were they?”

Mrs. Clinton explained that she wished there were a more reliable force of armed contractors at the compound and more help from the Central Intelligence Agency on the ground.

Unsatisfied that she was dodging the question, Mr. Westmoreland said, “I’m trying to be nice.”

Mrs. Clinton went on to say that she was not sure that anything could have been done to stop the attackers considering the way the attack played out. As for her own responsibility, Mrs. Clinton said she was involved with recommending Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens for the job and working on Libya policy before and after the fall of the regime.

“I was responsible for quite a bit, Congressman,” she said. “I was not responsible for specific security requests.”

—
Alan Rappeport

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https://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/10/23/us/hrc-hearing-roskam/hrc-hearing-roskam-facebookJumbo.jpg2015-10-22T16:22:48.048+00:00Roskam on Hillary Clinton Trying to Lift ProfileRepresentative Peter Roskam, Republican of Illinois, accused Hillary Rodham Clinton of using Libya as an opportunity to burnish her credentials as secretary of state.CreditBy THE ASSOCIATED PRESShttps://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/10/23/us/hrc-hearing-roskam/hrc-hearing-roskam-facebookJumbo.jpg

Representative Peter Roskam, Republican of Illinois, accused Hillary Rodham Clinton of using Libya as an opportunity to burnish her credentials as secretary of state and establish a “Clinton Doctrine.”

In a fiery exchange, Mr. Roskam read a series of emails between Mrs. Clinton and her staff members that he said showed how they were trying to shape the narrative surrounding America’s Libya policy and present Mrs. Clinton in a positive light.

“You were thinking about credit for you, isn’t that right?” said Mr. Roskam, before reading a message from her confidant, Sidney Blumenthal, in which he said that she needed to become the public face of Libya’s political transition.

Mrs. Clinton said that she was proud of the role she had, but that ultimately President Obama made the final decision on Libya. She said it was not unusual for someone in her position to explain foreign policy to the public.

Mr. Roskam disagreed, saying that Mrs. Clinton was being self-serving.

“Let me tell you what I think the Clinton Doctrine is,” he said. “I think it’s where an opportunity is seized to turn progress in Libya into a political win for Hillary Rodham Clinton.”

Representative Trey Gowdy started the second round of questioning by asking Hillary Rodham Clinton about why requests to get supplies to Libyans made their way to her but emails requesting more security from Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens never reached her inbox.

Mrs. Clinton repeatedly told Mr. Gowdy that Mr. Stevens had communicated with her staff, including a senior policy aide, Jake Sullivan, and security personnel in the State Department.

"He did not raise security with with the members of my staff," she said. "He raised security with the security professionals. I know that's not the answer you want to hear," she added. "But those are the facts."

"If he had raised it with me," she continued, "I would be here telling you he had."

Mr. Gowdy continued to press on Mrs. Clinton on her confidant, Sidney Blumenthal, and the advice he gave her about Libya.

"I have said it before and I will repeat it again, Sid Blumenthal was not my adviser official or unofficial about Libya," she said. "On occasion, I did forward what he sent me to make sure it was in the mix so if it was useful it could be put to use."

—
Amy Chozick

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https://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/10/22/multimedia/hrc-benghazi-hearing-5/hrc-benghazi-hearing-5-facebookJumbo.jpg2015-10-22T14:07:35.035+00:00Gowdy and Cummings Clash Over ReleasesRepresentative Trey Gowdy of South Carolina and Representative Elijah E. Cummings of Maryland disagreed about the information that was chosen for release by the Benghazi Committee.CreditBy THE ASSOCIATED PRESShttps://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/10/22/multimedia/hrc-benghazi-hearing-5/hrc-benghazi-hearing-5-facebookJumbo.jpg

A tense exchange between Representatives Trey Gowdy and Elijah E. Cummings — the committee's chairman and ranking Democrat, respectively — capped the questioning of Hillary Rodham Clinton about why her confidant and former adviser, Sidney Blumenthal, seemed to have more access to her than did Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens.

Mr. Cummings again asked Mr. Gowdy why he would not release the transcript of the committee's deposition of Mr. Blumenthal. Mr. Gowdy responded by saying the committee would take up that issue at a future meeting.

Mrs. Clinton alternated between looking at her notes and nodding with a slight grin as Mr. Gowdy and Mr. Cummings argued loudly about the transcript and Mr. Gowdy's interest in questioning Mrs. Clinton about her relationship with Mr. Blumenthal.

"If you think we've heard about Sidney Blumenthal, wait for the next round," Mr. Gowdy said as the first break in the day's testimony commenced.

Representative Trey Gowdy pushed back at the insinuation from Representative Adam Schiff that the Benghazi committee had already reached its conclusions about what responsibility Hillary Rodham Clinton had for the 2012 attack.

“There is no theory of the prosecution, Mr. Schiff, because there is no prosecution,” Mr. Gowdy said. “This is an investigation.”

Mr. Gowdy advised his Democratic colleague not to reach any conclusions until the end of that investigation, and reminded him that there are 20 more witnesses who need to be questioned.

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"If you don't have any friends who privately say unkind things, I congratulate you."

Representative Jim Jordan, Republican of Ohio, pressed Hillary Rodham Clinton on early suggestions that protests against an inflammatory anti-Islam video had played a role in the attack in Benghazi. "Where did the false narrative start?" Mr. Jordan said. "It started with you, Madame Secretary."

Mrs. Clinton said that she had mentioned the video as a warning to the region, and that she had not been saying it set off the attack. Mr. Jordan then displayed email exchanges that showed Mrs. Clinton calling the incident a "planned attack -- not a protest."

The topic of whether the video led to the attack caused Mrs. Clinton to become flustered in her 2013 testimony about Benghazi, when she responded, "Was it because of a protest or was it because of guys out for a walk one night and decided they'd go kill some Americans," Clinton said then, waving her arms. "What difference--at this point, what difference does it make?"

This time Mrs. Clinton kept her calm as Mr. Jordan pressed her, highlighting emails that he said proved the State Department had intentionally misled the public about whether protests related to the video had led to the attack. Mrs. Clinton said that had not been the case and that it was a fast-moving period with a lot of fluid information. "We were in a position of trying to make sense of a lot of incoming information," she said.

Mr. Jordan said that a terrorist attack would have hurt the Obama administration in a re-election year and suggested that Mrs. Clinton therefore characterized the Benghazi attack as growing out of spontaneous protests against the video. "You did it because Libya," Mr. Jordan said, "was supposed to be this great success story."

Mrs. Clinton said, "I think the insinuations you are making do a great disservice to the people at the State Department" and others who did their best "during some very confusing and difficult days."

"There is no doubt in my mind we did the best we could with the information we had at the time," she said.

—
Amy Chozick

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Representative Susan W. Brooks, Republican of IndianaCredit
Doug Mills/The New York Times

It did not take long for Hillary Rodham Clinton's emails to take center stage at the Benghazi hearings.

Even before the gavel fell, Democrats were predicting that Republicans would conduct the hearing with what they said was a partisan focus on Mrs. Clinton's use of a private email server to conduct State Department business.

In fact, the emails, more than 50,000 pages in all, did surface quickly. Representative Susan W. Brooks of Indiana began her questioning of Mrs. Clinton by putting two stacks of her emails about Libya on the dais in front of her. Other Republicans directed Mrs. Clinton's attention — and the cameras in the room — toward large screens showing individual email messages.

Republicans sought to rehabilitate their pursuit of the emails by not dwelling on Mrs. Clinton's use of the server, but rather by seeking to use the emails as the basis for substantive questions about her role before and after the Benghazi attacks.

One Republican lawmaker used an email between two state department employees that suggested Mrs. Clinton was unaware of the level of America's presence in Benghazi in the months leading up to the attacks. "How can this be?" Representative Martha Roby of Alabama asked.

Mrs. Clinton dismissed the email, saying she had "no recollection" of it, and adding: "I can't speak to what someone either heard or misheard."

Democrats on the committee continued to attack Republicans for their reliance on the emails. Representative Adam Smith of Washington spoke of an "obsession with the emails that takes of off what should have been the task of this committee" and questioned whether the emails had been fruitful.

"The question is, have we found anything substantively that tells us something different about what happened in Benghazi" Mr. Smith said. “The answer is no."

—
Michael D. Shear

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“I lived in Arkansas a long time. I don’t need an interpreter, Congressman.”

Mrs. Clinton used the softer line of inquiry to make the point that congressional gridlock and budget uncertainty was one of the things that was harming American security and prestige in the world.

“The kind of dysfunction and failure to be able to make decisions in our government hurts us,” she said. “It hurts us as the great country that we are being viewed from abroad as being unable to handle our own business. It has a lot of consequences.”

—
Alan Rappeport

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https://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/10/23/us/hrc-hearing-brooks/hrc-hearing-brooks-facebookJumbo.jpgBrooks Questions Orders to AmbassadorPointing to emails, Representative Susan W. Brooks, Republican of Indiana, asked Hillary Rodham Clinton about her orders to the United States ambassador, J. Christopher Stevens, in Benghazi.CreditBy THE ASSOCIATED PRESShttps://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/10/23/us/hrc-hearing-brooks/hrc-hearing-brooks-facebookJumbo.jpg

In the first demonstration of political theater, Representative Susan W. Brooks, Republican of Indiana, presented Mrs. Clinton with two giant stacks of her emails as she launched into a round of questions about her attention to the situation in Benghazi.

One pile, from 2011, had nearly 800 emails. The other, from the following year, had 67. Mrs. Brooks suggested that the difference represented a lack of interest in what was happening there at the time Ambassador Stevens was killed.

Mrs. Clinton responded by saying the job of secretary of state was not conducted entirely by email.

“I did not do the vast majority of my work by email,” she said, explaining that she had private meetings and secure phone calls with aides. “I don’t want you to have a mistaken impression about what I did and how I did it.”

—
Alan Rappeport

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Representative Trey Gowdy, Republican of South CarolinaCredit
Doug Mills/The New York Times

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Hillary ClintonCredit
Zach Gibson/The New York Times

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Elijah CummingsCredit
Doug Mills/The New York Times

Trey Gowdy, Hillary Clinton and Elijah E. CummingsDoug Mills/The New York Times

https://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/10/22/multimedia/hrc-opening-statement/hrc-opening-statement-facebookJumbo.jpg2015-10-22T10:58:16.016+00:00Hillary Clinton’s Opening StatementThe Democratic presidential candidate delivered her opening statement to a House panel on Thursday during a hearing on an attack in Benghazi, Libya, in 2012, when she was secretary of state.CreditBy THE ASSOCIATED PRESShttps://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/10/22/multimedia/hrc-opening-statement/hrc-opening-statement-facebookJumbo.jpg

Hillary Rodham Clinton said in her opening statements that any questioning about the attacks in Benghazi should strive to dignify the memories of the Americans who died there, and she argued that the United States should not retreat from a volatile and violent world.

After sharing some memories of Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens, who was killed in the attacks, Mrs. Clinton reminded the committee that she had already taken responsibility for what happened. She said she had tried to put reforms in place to keep diplomats safer.

Mrs. Clinton said that diplomats would always face risks abroad and that there would never be perfect security. She also recalled previous attacks on American diplomats in Lebanon and in Africa, noting that Republicans and Democrats managed bipartisan responses to those incidents.

“I’m here to honor those we lost,” Mrs. Clinton said, after listing the several investigations and inquiries into the incident. “My challenge to you, members of this committee, is the same challenge I put to myself. Let’s be worthy of the trust the American people have bestowed upon us.”

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“It is time, and it is time now, for Republicans to end this taxpayer-funded fishing expedition.”

Representative Elijah E. Cummings, the ranking Democrat on the Select Committee on Benghazi, used his opening statement to denounce the investigation into Mrs. Clinton, arguing that it has been a political sham intended to damage her presidential prospects.

Mr. Cummings called the investigation an “abusive effort to derail Secretary Clinton’s campaign.” He pointed out that top Republicans had described the investigation as political and criticized colleagues on the panel for trying to silence them for speaking out.

“What I want to know is this: Why tell Republicans to shut up when they are telling the truth, but not when they are attacking Secretary Clinton with reckless accusations that are demonstrably false?” Mr. Cummings said.

—
Alan Rappeport

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https://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/10/23/us/hrc-hearing-gowdy/hrc-hearing-gowdy-facebookJumbo.jpg2015-10-22T10:42:25.025+00:00Benghazi Committee Chairman on EmailsRepresentative Trey Gowdy, Republican of South Carolina, said Hillary Rodham Clinton’s “unusual email arrangement” complicated the investigation into the attack in Benghazi, Libya, in 2012.CreditBy THE ASSOCIATED PRESShttps://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/10/23/us/hrc-hearing-gowdy/hrc-hearing-gowdy-facebookJumbo.jpg

Representative Trey Gowdy of South Carolina, the chairman of the committee, opened the Benghazi hearing with a defense of its intentions. But he made clear that he planned to leave no issue untouched in the daylong grilling of Hillary Rodham Clinton.

After expressing sorrow for the deaths of four Americans in Libya, Mr. Gowdy said, “This investigation is about four people who were killed representing our country on foreign soil.”

Mrs. Clinton flipped through papers and sat with her hands clasped as Mr. Gowdy insisted that the investigation was not about her or her use of a private email server as secretary of state. But he made clear that he had serious questions about her actions.

“You are an important witness,” Mr. Gowdy said. The delay in questioning her, he said, occurred because of her unusual email practices, not because the committee was dragging out a political witch-hunt.

Mr. Gowdy said he and his colleagues were seeking to create the final and definitive report on Benghazi because the country owed it to the families of people who died.

“We owe their families our everlasting gratitude and respect,” he said. “We owe them and each other the truth about what we were doing in Libya.”

—
Alan Rappeport

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“Your emails are no more or less important than anyone else’s. It just took longer to get them and garnered more attention in the process.”